Manchester United are facing the most significant transfer window in modern memory this summer, after their failure to overcome Huddersfield Town on Sunday confirmed that the club will miss out on Champions League football for the third time in six seasons.

Demotion to the Europa League will take a bite out of the club’s budget for next season.

Much like the financial gap between competing in the Premier League and the Championship, the chasm between Champions League and Europa League football continues to grow with every passing broadcasting rights deal.

The latest three-year cycle began this season, a huge increase on the former deal beginning in 2015/16, but United will not be reaping the benefits next time around.

As the club look to rebuild this summer, rumours continue to swirl around Ajax prodigy Matthijs de Ligt; and while United could guarantee him perhaps the most lucrative financial package, the teenager is unlikely to want to drop down to the Europa League when he could end the season with a Champions League winner’s medal.

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Ditto Jadon Sancho, who can take his pick from any of Europe’s elite when the summer rolls around, as well as any number of the quality players linked with the club.

Nevertheless, the club remains in healthy financial shape and, with no Financial Fair Play worries hanging over its head, should be able to spend relatively freely this summer, if players still view the club as an attractive prospect.

Being the wealthiest club in the Premier League, financing player acquisitions would not be a stumbling block for United.

As of 31 December last year, the club were sitting on a pile of cash and cash equivalents worth £190million, albeit a drop of £57million from three months earlier as the cost of running the club and paying for player signings chewed up capital.

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Clubs almost never dip into their own cash pile to sign players, instead relying on the cash generated from day-to-day trading or player sales to do so, while others may rely on loans from shareholders or external financing.

Revenues during the period were up by just under a fifth to £209million, almost entirely on the back of the new Champions League broadcasting rights agreement.

This produced a pre-tax profit for the three months ended 31 December that was pretty much flat year-on-year at £37.6million, as club overheads increased dramatically.

In the second half of last year, the club’s pre-tax profit stood at £46.4million, which almost any Premier League would be proud of over the course of a whole season.

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In 2014, when a seventh place finish guaranteed the club would not be playing any form of European football, the club spent more than £150million on Ander Herrera, Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo, Angel Di Maria and Daley Blind.

This was made possible thanks to 25 years of success on and off the pitch, and United are still very much a commercial giant, picking up £66million in the final three months of last season alone through such activities.

Likewise Chelsea, finding themselves bereft of any European football in 2016, were not hindered, spending vast sums on Michy Batshuayi, N’Golo Kante, Marcos Alonso and David Luiz.

Given that United generates so much revenue and cash, they in recent years have not been reliant on player sales to fund acquisitions; in the past five seasons, United’s profit on player sales has not exceeded £25million during any one season, with the club actually making a £9.8million loss on selling players in 2015/16.

United’s profit on selling players for the six months ended 31 December sat at £18.1million, mainly due to Sam Johnstone to West Bromwich Albion and Daley Blind to Ajax.

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This figure, however, excludes the sale of Marouane Fellaini to Shandong Luneng Taishan, which should provide a boost going into the summer.

In contrast, many top clubs, like Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, have made profits north of £100million offloading players, which has helped them bolster their squads or fund infrastructure in recent seasons.

With revenues set to fall in 2019/20 on the back of playing in the Europa League, the club may want to squeeze extra profit from player sales this summer.

Moving aging, expensive squad players out of the team should also be considered, to free up room in the wage budget for new signings.

United will provide further evidence of their current financial health going into the summer when they publish third-quarter results for the three months ended 31 March 2019 next week.